A high school football coach has a good player, who is unfortunately thought to be MUCH too small and too slow for D-1 college football.

The coach contacts 105 schools and asks if they will consider his player. All of them turn him down! But... one school has a last-minute scholarship opening due to a drop-out. The player gets invited to visit, wins a scholarship (almost as a favor to the high school coach, who is an old friend of one of the college assistants).

The player ends up starting as a freshman, then in his career sets an NCAA record for punt returns, along with having 21 touchdowns and over 3,000 yards receiving.

Then he isn't invited to the NFL combine. He goes undrafted, makes a team, is cut, makes another, is traded...

Wes Welker is my least favorite Patriot by far, only my hate for Roidney is comparable, in fact I respect most of Brady's bunch. Guys like Bruschi, Vrabel, Seymour especially impress me, they have a classy group of guys especially on the defensive end, definately a defense I will remember in a manner similar to that of the '95 or so Pittsburgh Steelers. That Steeler defense was made up of some tough characters.

Yet that is a pretty incredible story about Welker, I will admit that. The only thing that annoys me is that picture his parents have of him in their house, that portrait kind of creeps me out. It would only be permissible if they lived in 1808 instead of 2008.

Slick Pinkham

01-28-2008, 04:25 PM

I thought the amazon link might be a hoax, but...

If you go to amazon.com and enter into the search field "19-0 Patriots" without the quotes, it is indeed there.

rexnom

01-30-2008, 02:24 AM

I like Welker because he's a small guy and because of this clip:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ap-4KAs26g8
Warning: don't watch if you are sensitive to bad things happening to the colts.

idioteque

01-30-2008, 10:22 AM

That clip with Welker is what makes him annoying to me more than anything.

I don't want the Colts to hurt him or anything, but I'd love to see Bob Sanders absolutely lay him out next year to ensure he has to sit on the bench for the next couple of plays.

travmil

01-30-2008, 01:44 PM

That clip is an example of why I can never respect the Patriots for anything ever. I've seen Marvin Harrison spike a few balls over the years. The difference is he does it after touchdowns, not first downs. Welker had 112 catches this year. That was one, and not even a super important one in the grand scheme of their season. Do you think he popped up and said that after every one of them? What an ***. Go Giants!!!

Slick Pinkham

01-30-2008, 02:41 PM

That was one, and not even a super important one in the grand scheme of their season.

Are you kidding me? That catch ended the game. Every play after that was a kneel-down. It ended a road game against an undefeated opponent, the toughest game of the year to that point.

The first down there was in fact better than a touchdown, because if he has scored a touchdown then the Colts would have gotten the ball back.

I don't know why he said that, but you can bet that it was not the first exchange of words between Welker and that Colts player that day, and that it was in response to something equally crude directed at him.

idioteque

01-30-2008, 03:08 PM

I hate to say that but if Wes Welker was talking to Tim Jennings there, he was right.

Moses

01-30-2008, 04:04 PM

That clip is an example of why I can never respect the Patriots for anything ever. I've seen Marvin Harrison spike a few balls over the years. The difference is he does it after touchdowns, not first downs. Welker had 112 catches this year. That was one, and not even a super important one in the grand scheme of their season. Do you think he popped up and said that after every one of them? What an ***. Go Giants!!!
Do you really think that their isn't a ton of trash talking going on all throughout the game? If you think that's bad, you should search around for linemen who got mic'd up during a game before. You'd be appalled at what some of those guys talk about.

ABADays

01-30-2008, 04:18 PM

Good story but I don't give a crap. There are 20-30 stories like that every year in the NFL.

Maybe next year when Jackson meets Welker he will end the game 5-7.

Slick Pinkham

01-30-2008, 04:54 PM

There are 20-30 stories like that every year in the NFL.

I guess I haved missed all those stories...

there are guys all over the place having near pro-bowl seasons, after going undrafted, cut, and also having basically had to beg people to recruit him to college?

News to me...

Sollozzo

02-01-2008, 02:26 PM

I guess I haved missed all those stories...

there are guys all over the place having near pro-bowl seasons, after going undrafted, cut, and also having basically had to beg people to recruit him to college?

News to me...

Every year come super bowl time there are always a couple stories about players who have endured some herculian struggle to get where they are.